2024 BAHM Case Competition

• National and international recognition for the participating programs and students who compete
• Opportunity to network with student and faculty peers from other select programs across the globe
• Opportunity to interact with healthcare industry professionals who serve as judges, case developers, and competition sponsors, with the primary goal of benefitting the students and their respective programs
• Opportunity to form academic-industry partnerships, identify internship/residency and future employment opportunities, and transfer knowledge from healthcare professionals to students and faculty

I learned about the [many] opportunities that Digital Health can contribute to improve the lives of the underserved. With today’s technological advancements, we can leverage the capabilities of our own smartphones to help millions of lives around the world and address issues and communities that were easily overlooked in the past.

Roni Steiner
Product Owner for the Point of Care Ultrasound Devices
MBA from IESE Business School (Class of 2021) and 2021 Case Competition participant

SEE INTERVIEWS WITH STUDENTS, JUDGES AND HOSTS FROM THE 2022 COMPETITION

There are two team formats:

• Program team. Programs are invited to field their own team of 3 – 4 students. Program teams may include students from other graduate school programs within the BAHM-member school – including but not limited to MPP, MPA, MPH, MS – as long as at least one student represents an MBA program with a focus on healthcare management.
• Joint International Team. In addition to a Program Team, programs may select 1 or 2 students to compete in a Joint International Team (JIT).
  • JITs must have 4 students with a minimum of one international student, and a maximum of two students from the same program
  • JIT students will participate in a virtual mixer and will have the option of self-selecting or being assigned to a JIT (self-selection or assignment will take place after the JIT mixer)

Here is the detailed case: BAHM Case Prompt

Here is a case summary:

Hospital executives are reporting a declining use in agency staffing in the past year (Modern Healthcare, August 21, 2023), and shortages across nearly all patient care disciplines remain. Despite increasing pay and schedule flexibility, organizations continue to struggle with achieving and maintaining staffing levels that balance financial sustainability with adequate performance on industry measures of patient care quality. These shortages appear to be manifesting themselves in labor unrest (e.g., Kaiser) and ongoing labor turnover. Teams will explore local strategies to improve not only the production of health care workers, but also financially sustainable ways to retain the current workforce.

A block of room rooms has been reserved at a group rate for competition participants at the Hotel Teatro in downtown Denver. The block is under the name CU Denver BAHM Case Competition.

• Teams submit report and presentation slide deck for judges review by January 26
• Teams will present their solutions to judges on the morning of Friday, February 9
• Judges will select three finalists to present their solutions to all judges and teams in a final round the afternoon of February 9

The competition on Friday will be held in a hybrid-format. All teams are encouraged to participate in person, and a faculty advisor from each program is invited to accompany the team. Students participating virtually will do so synchronously.

• Case report due by 5:00 p.m. Denver Time (MST), January 26, 2024
• Opening Reception: Thursday February 8 at 6:30 p.m. MST
  • Announcement of semifinal group assignments and draw for order of semifinal presentations
  • Tour of presentation rooms (if desired) at 8:00 p.m.

• Teams check in 7:00 a.m. MST Friday February 9 at University of Colorado Business School
• Competition begins 7:30 a.m.
• Semi-final rounds – 7:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.:
  • 7:30-7:50 a.m.—first set of teams
  • 8:00-8:20 a.m.—second set of teams
  • 8:30-8:50 a.m.—third set of teams
  • 9:00-9:20 a.m.—fourth set of teams
  • 9:30-9:50 a.m.—fifth set of teamsTeams will have photographs taken after their presentations

• Judges select finalists: 10:00 – 10:30 a.m.
• Lunch:  11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
• Announcement of finalists and draw for order of final presentation: 11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
• Finalist presentations:  12:30 – 2:30 p.m.
• Judges select award winners:  2:30 – 3:00 p.m.
• Announcement of winners and presentation of awards:  3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
• Networking reception 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

1. Team members may use any reference sources/materials in the public domain in conducting their research.
2. The team report and presentation slides must be submitted by 4:59 p.m. MST, Friday, January 26, 2024.  All references and data must be fully cited. The submission e-platform for these deliverables will be accessed through a tool to be determined later.  To note, all deliverables must be anonymous; they should mention neither school affiliations nor team names.A comprehensive report describing the proposed plan in a document not to exceed 20 single spaced pages including no more than 2 pages worth of illustrations. The report should provide:

a. The current context for healthcare workforce in their organization including areas of need, prior strategies undertaken, results, and potential threats to maintaining the workforce at current levels. That context should also include a description of any additional factors such as the presence of a union or local market factors such as wage/price controls.

b. Areas of potential threat to the organization arising from the status quo in the workforce.

c. Innovative strategies to improve current workforce retention and improve workforce participation by licensed practitioners in the hospital market area. Strategies should consider not just compensation but other operational changes (e.g., training, programs to practice at top of licensure) or modified staffing patterns that more efficiently allocate scarce staff resources, or other innovations that address specific patient care needs. Plans must also include specifics on how a health care system can pay for such strategies and identify how their plans will be financially sustainable.

d. Projection of expected results from proposed strategies with support for analyses and accountability measures to quantify benefits of those strategies. How will those plans be assessed for success or refinement?

e. Proposed strategies to improve the “pipeline” of workers in the community over the long term (beyond 2-3 years in the future). What strategies have been tried to develop the pipeline and what was their performance? Are there changes that can be made to the existing pipeline, or how must the pipeline be reimagined?

f. If the organization is not unionized, plans must also describe how the approach would be amended if a union were introduced into the market. Conversely if the organization is unionized, how can the union be leveraged to further the proposed strategies? Essentially, teams must build a baseline plan, and then respond to how that plan might be adjusted/adapted because of a unionized environment.

A one-page executive summary suitable for presentation to a governing board.

A PowerPoint presentation is required (up to 15 slides including tables may be used in the presentation). In presenting this plan, it is more important to show the depth of your research than to provide a cursory overview of the plan. For example, if there are several potential indications or markets, be sure to address at least the most promising indication or market in depth and offer the potential for additional indications or markets.  Appendix slides to support Q&A responses are permitted and do not count against the presentation slide limit.

• American Hospital Association. (2021). Data Brief: Health Care Workforce Challenges Threaten Hospitals’ Ability to Care for Patients.  https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2021/11/data-brief-health-care-workforce-challenges-threaten-hospitals-ability-to-care-for-patients.pdf
• Barrueta, A. (2023). Hiring alone won’t solve the health care worker shortage. https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/news/hiring-alone-wont-solve-health-care-worker-shortage

• Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Healthcare Occupations. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home.htm
• Colorado Hospital Association. (2023). Culture of Care. https://cha.com/coloradohospitals/cultureofcare/
• Lindsay, B. (2023). Nursing agencies are staffing hospitals at ‘huge cost’ to health-care system, experts say. https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/cost-nursing-agencies-1.6839273
• NurseMatch.com, (n.d.). The Crippling Effect of Agency vs. Core Staffing. https://nursematch.com/the-crippling-effect-of-agency-vs-core-staffing/
• O’Connell-Domenech, A. (2023). The US is suffering a healthcare worker shortage. Experts fear it will only get worse. Accessed from https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/preventioncures/4225960-the-us-is-suffering-a-healthcare-worker-shortage-experts-fear-it-will-only-getworse/#:~:text=The%20backlog%20of%20work%20is,by%20the%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic

In general, your business models for this competition should:

• Describe the organization and its labor needs – a specific discipline should be noted.
• Past strategies that have been attempted and results.
• Proposed innovation to address its labor needs, including:
  • Elements of the strategy
  • Costs to implement and sources of funding for the strategy
  • Review of regulatory/legal/compliance issues associated with the strategy
  • Success measures and how they will be evaluated
  • Projected financial and clinical impacts
  • How the proposed strategy is impacted by the presence of a unionized workforce

Scoring

• Report, Summary, and Slide Deck: 65%
• Presentation and question responses: 35%

Judging Criteria (all items equally weighted)

• Comprehensiveness of research
• Consideration of key uncertainties and regulatory impacts
• Feasibility, including scalability and financial sustainability
• Evaluation of union impacts
• The overall strength of proposed business model

Judges from across the global health care industry will review each submission. The top scoring teams will be awarded prizes.

• First Place $10,000 and the opportunity to submit a paper to Health Management, Policy and Innovation (HMPI.org)
• Second Place $5,000
• Third Place $2,500

*Change from last year’s awards

• Papers should be based on students’ original work. Students can work with faculty to develop their plans.
• Not all schools can give academic credit for the competition. For those that do, requirements will be determined by the school and may take the form of independent studies, field projects, or other project-based coursework. It is up to the participating students to understand the requirements of their school at the outset of this competition.
• As with any other academic assignment, you are expected to submit your own work and not use resources such as generative AI tools to develop your solutions.  All deliverables will be screened for originality and use of AI tools. Teams that submit deliverables with suspected AI use may be disqualified from the competition.